Various flowable materials, such as butter and butter substitutes, are commonly manufactured in continuous fashion, passing through various equipment components in a supply line as one unbroken mass. Before the butter can be ultimately packaged and the final product shipped, it must be thoroughly filtered to ensure that all unsafe, unsanitary, or otherwise unwanted debris is removed. Filtration protocols may involve passing the butter through a fine screen, or “noodle plate,” to physically block such debris from advancing to subsequent processing stages.
While a screen may initially provide adequate filtration of the butter, debris often accumulates on the screen over time and causes the screen to clog, thereby generating backpressure in the supply line, increasing the risk of contamination and reducing the overall effectiveness of the filtration process. Periodic replacement of the screen is thus necessary to ensure consistent, thorough filtration of the butter, a task that significantly complicates butter processing. In particular, the constant flow of butter through the supply line generates large volumes of wasted butter upon even briefly disconnecting any inline filtration equipment. In addition, several machine operators may be needed to disconnect the supply line, disassemble the filtration equipment, replace the screen, reassemble the filtration equipment, and realign the supply line, all while controlling the messy conditions caused by wasted butter spilling from the disconnected line. Prolonged disconnection of the filtering equipment to exchange one filtering screen for the next may also result in extended shutdowns of butter processing. Thus, improved filtering apparatus better equipped for continuous butter processing is needed to decrease waste, improve sanitation and increase throughput.